---
date: "2003-11-23T06:45:19Z"
title: Decoupled Icecast Streaming
---

<p>
I separated the <a href='http://www.icecast.org/'>Icecast</a> streaming for <a href='/radio/'>Pablotron Radio</a> from <a href='http://www.xmms.org/><acronym title='X Multimedia System'>XMMS</acronym></a>.  I'm just using <code>shout</code> to queue files for the stream now.  I also wrote a brief script which calls <a href='http://www.ignavus.net/software.html'><acronym title='X On-Screen Display'>XOSD</acronym></a> to notify me when a new song comes on.  Here's the script:
</p>

<pre>
#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# some XOSD settings
ENV['DISPLAY'] = ':0'
FONT = "-adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-20-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-2"

# fork and exit so shout doesn't block
pid = fork
if pid
  Process::waitpid(pid, Process::WNOHANG)
  exit 0
end

# make sure the cue file updates
sleep 1

# read the cue file and pipe it to xosd
File::open('/var/log/icecast/.cue', 'r') { |cue|
    name, size, rate, time, unknown, ofs = cue.readlines.map { |i| i.chomp }
  IO::popen("osd_cat -p bottom -f #{FONT} -s 1 -c \\#ffcc00", 'w') { |osd|
    osd.puts "#{time} - #{name}"
  }
}
</pre>

<p>
Why go through all this trouble?  So I can use <a href='http://www.xmms.org/'><acronym title='X Multimedia System'>XMMS</acronym></a> to search for and preview songs locally, without messing with the active stream.  Plus it's neat to have <a href='http://www.ignavus.net/software.html'><acronym title='X On-Screen Display'>XOSD</acronym></a> notifications for stuff :).
</p>